


the moon that rose at midday

by nebulia



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Anxiety, Autistic Kageyama Tobio, Friendship, Gen, Haikyuu!! Manga Spoilers, Hinata Shouyou is a Good Friend, M/M, Pre-Slash, love that that’s a tag, spoilers through ch 370
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-26
Updated: 2020-03-26
Packaged: 2021-02-28 16:47:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23320435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nebulia/pseuds/nebulia
Summary: [If I,” Kageyama says, and his voice is very small. “If I came to Brazil—““Like for the Olympics?” Shouyou says.“No,” Kageyama says, voice still small. “Just to...not be here.”]
Relationships: Hinata Shouyou & Kageyama Tobio, Hinata Shouyou/Kageyama Tobio
Comments: 9
Kudos: 277
Collections: UWU Fic Chat aka Tree Soup aka Ghost Teeth 2020 Coronavirus Quarantine Fic Challenge





	the moon that rose at midday

**Author's Note:**

> written for the uwu fic chat’s writing/art/transformative work prompt of the day 3/25, “runaway.” thanks to everyone for hosting & encouraging writing! felt good to finish something. 
> 
> timestamp: 2016 june! i wrote this not sure if hinata was already in brazil or not, but a quick look at ch 370 indicates he is there during Rio so I’m assuming he was. no research was done in the making of this fic tho. additionally, this fic doesn’t spoil ch 387 but 387 informs it. 
> 
> Kageyama is written as autistic and strongly implied to be so in the text but it is not explicit.

Kageyama usually doesn’t call. Mostly he sends pictures, occasionally with small essays about practice attached. Sometimes he sends articles about volleyball, news pieces or a highlight video, and sometimes a tip sheet on English. Shouyou sends those things, too, but if he wants to talk, he almost always has to call Kageyama. There’s no point in waiting for him to call. 

So when Kageyama calls, Shouyou answers. 

It’s June and Kageyama should be at lunch at the national camp, but instead he’s calling Shouyou at midnight Shouyou’s time, and usually he’s very respectful of Shouyou’s early morning schedule. Shouyou is going to answer because Kageyama doesn’t call and he doesn’t call when he’s training and he doesn’t call at midnight Shouyou’s time except he is. 

“Kageyama?” 

“If I,” Kageyama says, and his voice is very small. “If I came to Brazil—“

“Like for the Olympics?” Shouyou says. 

“No,” Kageyama says, voice still small. “Just to...not be here.”

Shouyou frowns. “Kageyama?” Kageyama doesn’t say anything, but his breath gusts in Shouyou’s ear, elevated. “Kageyama, what’s wrong?” 

“It’s lonely here,” Kageyama says, like he has to rip the words out of himself. “I’ll make the team for sure but I’m too young and too weird and too intense and no one is—everyone is so focused, and me too, but it’s—“ his voice cracks. 

“Kageyama,” Shouyou says, and his own voice wobbles. “Kageyama, if you quit now—“

“I know it’s running away,” Kageyama says. “But I’m—it’s hard to be alone.” 

Shouyou hasn’t been in Brazil long but he knows that feeling now in a way he didn’t before he moved. Kageyama’s behavior makes far more sense than it did when they first met now that Shouyou knows how it is to feel completely alone in the world. Kageyama might not have been in a different country, but he still speaks a different language half the time, so Shouyou’s pretty sure he felt just as lost his whole life as Shouyou does now. 

“Kageyama,” Shouyou says. “Don’t you dare quit on me now.” 

“Eh?” Kageyama says, more energy in that single syllable than in the rest of the phone call put together. 

“If you quit a month before you’re picked for the Olympic team because you’re too _weird_ for everyone else you’re a coward.” He ignores Kageyama’s sputter. “And if you quit because you’re _scared_ before we stand on the world stage _together,_ I’ll never forgive you. What happened to _nothing is scarier than Oikawa-san?”_

“That was before—“ Kageyama starts, and cuts himself off, but Shouyou can guess: before he realized how it felt to have the support of people around you, and how it feels to have that rug pulled out from under you. 

“Can I tell you something?” Shouyou says, hushed. Kageyama’s quiet. “I look up ticket prices back to Japan at least once a week. Only ever at night, because then I say if I still want to buy them in the morning I will, but I never do. It’s scary, Kageyama.”

“Yeah,” Kageyama says, the syllable little more than a _whoosh_ of air. “It is.”

“That’s why you gotta wait for me, okay?” Shouyou says. “You can’t take the coward’s way out and leave me here scared alone.” 

Kageyama doesn’t say anything for a long time. His breath sounds a little wet, but Shouyou is magnanimous. He won’t make fun of him. 

Kageyama swallows. “Hurry up, then,” he says finally. “You’re already gonna miss one Olympics. You better not miss another one.” 

“ _You’d_ better not get your stupid ass injured before I get there,” Shouyou retorts, and Kageyama snorts. His voice isn’t small anymore. 

Shouyou mentally chalks another tally in his “victories against Kageyama” column. He’s definitely winning.

**Author's Note:**

> comments and kudos are always appreciated! 
> 
> title from bts’s heartbeat, specifically bangtan translations’ [translation.](%E2%80%9C)
> 
> you can find me at twitter and tumblr!


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